Washington Law Review Volume 60 Number 3 6-1-1985 Patriation of the Canadian Constitution: Comparative Federalism in a New Context William C. Hodge Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons Recommended Citation William C. Hodge, Patriation of the Canadian Constitution: Comparative Federalism in a New Context, 60 Wash. L. Rev. 585 (1985). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol60/iss3/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington Law Review by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. PATRIATION OF THE CANADIAN CONSTITUTION: COMPARATIVE FEDERALISM IN A NEW CONTEXT William C. Hodge* INTRODUCTION What races will survive World War III? The Chinese and the Qu6bcois. The Chinese because there are so many of them, and the Qu6b6cois because if they've survived the last four hundred years, they'll survive anything. Qu6bec is that part of North America that is so distinct from the rest, and against such odds, that it takes pride in serving to define what a nation is- and can be. -JOEL GARREAU' The Canadian constitution, also known as the British North America Act, 1867,2 has been "patriated." Of that bundle of sticks that, fastened together, constitute sovereign autonomy, a significant few continued to rest with the British Parliament until 1982-a condition the Canadians found humiliating and the British embarrassing.